Day 27 - Arriving to Big Bend

Dear Family and Friends, Welcome to my shiny new Road Trip Daily blog. Here you can find day-by-day posts from my trip (swipe left and right to go quickly between days in mobile view) and if you are on a family google group or the new Road Trip Daily blog-specific google group then you will receive automatic daily updates in your email inbox! Technology.. So cool. Do let me know if you aren't receiving messages or the blog isn't working.

So on to today: Ten hours was the time it would take me to drive to Big Bend National Park in the far southwest corner of Texas. I had wanted badly to visit Big Bend but since it was six hours out of the way, I had left it off the original itinerary, instead sticking near El Paso for White Sands, Guadalupe Mountains, and Carslbad Caverns. But since my detour to Chiricahua was so successful and the weather ideal in Big Bend, I decided to go for it.

Good decision. I arrived to Big Bend by 6pm and sped down a winding 30-mile scenic road (pic 1) to Cottonwood campground near the Rio Grande River. Finding a campsite is priority number one when I arrive to a park and since most are first-come-first-serve arriving late is not good. But I called ahead and new that Cottonwood would have availability.

After a while I saw towering cliffs in front of me and was bewildered. They were huge in the distance and seemed almost unnatural and out of place. I assumed the road was winding east west or north as I knew the river was south and thought the mountains couldn't be by the river. But then I remembered some pictures of Big Bend and hey! that's the Rio Grande. The Wall-Game of Thrones style between the U.S. and Mexico. As you got closer the wall dominated the skyline. It was a site to behold. See pic.

After securing my campsite, I drove six more miles to one of the park highlights: the Santa Elena canyon-- 1500 foot and narrow canyon walls from the south entering from Mexico. This is an infamous white water rafting river section because there is an impossible rocks section. The park has a mile hike into the canyon and I arrived at dusk and crossed the river into the canyon just as the darkness was setting in. Then I hiked out at night with my headlamp and drove back and slept-- happy to have made it this far south.

Comments

Day 161 - JMT Purple Lake and Tully Hole

We got our first glimpse of smoke far across the valley as we climbed higher. Up on a ridge after a morning climb, we followed a side trail to an open viewpoint beyond the trees. Selfie:) The smoke, while visible, seemed to give the mountains a blue glow-- like a highlighter to a sketch. You could still see the edges of the mountain ridges, the story of their creation. We could hike in this. But the smoke looked worse farther south. Or it was getting worse as time rolled incessantly forward. On day two we had ran into a northbound hiker we nicknamed Speedy Steve. Speedy Steve had hiked 18 miles a day through eight consecutive smoke-filled days, including atleast three "very bad days" when he couldn't see the surrounding mountains, the sun glowed a haunting orange and ash accumulated overnight. On the way to Purple Lake we ran into three dirty, beat up, tired north-bound hikers with a similar story. They had to spend one night in an emergency hut at Muir Pass to avoid the...

Day 41 - Escalante Coyote Gulch

This one or two night Coyote Gulch hike was an easy test of my newly learned navigation skills. Anxious to get started I awoke at 545 just as the sun was rising. I followed an obvious landmark, a tall thin spire called Chimney Rock, northwest to Hurricane Wash (a drainage running into Coyote Gulch). After a couple of hours of walking up over and around slick rock, I entered the famous Coyote Gulch. The walls around me raised up, darkened and th water flow increased--like nature hinting at the scenic beauty ahead. The normally crowded Coyote Gulch was fairly empty on this early Thursday morning, giving the canyon a very peaceful and quiet feeling-- fragile almost. Down steam, I ran into the famous Jacob Hamilton Arch and then thirty minutes further-- the Coyote Natural Birdge. Both were beautiful due to their see through the wall character, but both would be overshadowed in my memory by the Stevens Arch tomorrow. Pics. By 1pm, I had hiked for six hours...

Day 42 - Escalante Stevens Arch

The Stevens Arch is so massive that legend says daredevil pilots would fly through it. I was excited to see it! Having napped most of the afternoon, I awoke promptly at 545, packed up my things and hiked down to the Escalante River as the first morning light was pouring into the canyon. Hiking around more waterfalls and ledges and along the stream before anyone else was up was nice. My written directions said to look for sandy hill to my right which led up to my only exit from the canyon-- the Crack-in-the-Wall. I ran into the confluence of the Escalante River, a point which my guidebook noted was passed my exit route, requiring a ten minute backtrack. This was fine though because I had tons of time and wanted to see the Stevens Arch. I crossed the knee-deep Escalante River several times before the Arch came into view. Like a window in the Roman Colloseum, the Arch seemed almost engineered by man in this tall curving canyon wall. I hiked under the arch and couldn't eve...

Road Trip Daily

Search This Blog